Stopping Violence Against Women

Before it Happens

A Practical Toolkit for Communities

Julie Oberin, Chair of AWAVA

7th Australian Women’s Health Network Conference, Sydney,

10 May 2013:

Gender Matters: Determining Women's Health

Why?

What?

How?

• To assist implementation of Australian Government’s National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010-2022

• 15 easy to understand factsheets covering key concepts specifically: primary prevention of violence against women

• Online Survey

• Partnership members provided advice

NRWC-led: Sandra Stoddart and Val Lang

AWAVA: Julie Oberin and Amy Blain

QCDFVR: Heather Nancarrow, Annie Webster and Terese Kingston

• 2 community consultation events in Emerald and Broken Hill

“If the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children has any hope of achieving its goal, then it is women like this, in communities like Emerald, all over Australia, that we need to be engaging in violence prevention work.”

– Kiri Dicker – Project Officer for Stopping Violence Before it Starts

What is primary prevention?

Project Officer’s Impressions:

EmeraldThey told us about the challenges they faced addressing violence against women in their communities. They said that there was a pervasive attitude that violence against women ‘didn’t happen’ in rural areas…sometimes both men and women were reluctant, or even offended, to discuss the topic. Sadly, we were told that there is sometimes little empathy for women who experience violence, especially in communities where everyone was ‘doing it tough’.

Key Findings from Community Consultations:

The positives

• enthusiastic response from participants

• communities keen to know what to do and how to take action

• valuable input from Emerald and Broken Hill communities

The challenges

• limited knowledge of the National Plan

• lack of knowledge/understanding of primary prevention

• primary prevention, seen as an ‘extra’

• men and women often dismissive or ambivalent about gender equality

• attitudes and beliefs that are violence-enabling

What communities wanted to see in Toolkit:

• ways to incorporate primary prevention projects into existing workload

• strong preference for straightforward, practical resource in plain English

• information on how to speak out about violence and gender inequality

• how to engage men in discussions about violence and gender equality

• accessible to everyone

• practical advice and ideas

• focus on ‘getting started’ and taking action

They wanted information and advice on how to broach the topic of violence against women in ways that engaged, and didn’t isolate, rural communities…they wanted to know ‘what worked’…and lots of practical ideas and simple steps to getting projects started at a community level.

Structure of Toolkit:Part One: Understanding Violence Against Women1: What is it?

2: Why does it happen?

3: How can it be prevented?

4: What are the issues for rural communities?

5: How can I speak out?

Part Two: Primary Prevention Methods and Approaches6: Raising awareness and changing attitudes

7: Encouraging respectful relationships

8: Improving women’s financial independence and leadership

9: Engaging men and boys

10: Supporting families

Part Three: A Step-by-Step Guide to Taking Action11: Working in partnership

12: Community mapping

13: Setting goals and objectives

14: Program design and delivery

15: Monitoring and evaluation

How to use Toolkit:Download for free at: http://www.nrwn.org.au/stopping-violence-against-women-before-it-happens-a-practical-toolkit-for-communities/

How to use Toolkit:

Community feedback and what you can do

What’s happened since

• Minister Collins launched Toolkit August 2012

• Nearly 4,500 page views, over 3,600 downloads of toolkit

• Good feedback

What next?

• Tell your community about the tool

• Get involved

• Start primary prevention activities in your community

Congratulations on a terrific,

informative resource

Addresses the challenging topic of gender inequality and violence against women…points the reader to look at challenging attitudes and behaviour

Available on:

www.nrwc.com.au

www.awava.org.au